Syria is often described as the Middle East's pivot, affecting what happens around it. Its evolution needs to be watched and studied. The country is now dealing with its inglorious recent past and is planning for the future. Syria has shown that its citizens have limited tolerance for poor governance. Once those who are ruled become impatient with the quality of governance to which they are subjected, they can exact a high price from 'those who', when in positions of power. This has happened repeatedly in Pakistan when the military watching the performance of the civilian government intervened and directly ruled the country. Let me detail what is happening in Syria.

President Bashar al-Assad's fall in Syria was sudden and unexpected even for those analysts who had been watching developments in the country for a long time. Three journalists who were covering events in the Middle East for The New York Times painted a grim picture of Syria while the Assad family ruled the country for more than half a century. The family was in power starting in 1951 when Hafez al-Assad, then a general in the army, mounted a coup and a year later took over as the country's president. He governed the country with an iron hand, with zero tolerance for any opposition. He was succeeded in 2000 by his son, Bashar, who continued his father's approach to governance. "For nearly all the years that the Assad family ruled Syria, silence reigned. No one spoke freely, fearful of who might hear. Everyone knew the consequences of dissent: disappearance into government's prisons from which few ever returned,"........

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